Our Hero is certain he knows who committed the crime. Unfortunately, he doesn't have much evidence, so he maneuvers the criminal into panicking in a way that's likely to be self-incriminating.

Some variants include:# Police announce they will be making a search of a particular area. The killer feels forced to remove some weak evidence from the place first. The police actually already had that evidence, and now they have the strong evidence that the killer knew about it and tried to conceal it.# Tricking a criminal into revealing the location of a key piece of evidence (such as a body). One unlikely version is that the police forge some evidence to make it seem the victim's been seen around; killer goes to check on the place where the body is hidden; [[TrickAndFollowPloy cops follow him there]]. Allegedly TruthInTelevision: police used a clever ruse to get the murderer of John and Phoebe Harries to reveal the location of the body.# The most dangerous kind: a character is put into a position where they're dangerous to the murderer's schemes. A common way of doing this is trying to {{blackmail}} the murderer. In any case, when the murderer attempts to kill this new obstacle, the police burst out from hiding and the murderer is caught red handed (though for a new crime).

This trope is particularly common in armchair detective fiction, where the hero often has only determined the culprit through [[ConvictionByContradiction a long chain of interlocking deductions and subtle observations which would never hold up in court]].

Compare EngineeredPublicConfession (which plays off the villain's overconfidence rather than their panic), PerpSweating, FramingTheGuiltyParty. Will occasionally result in INeverSaidItWasPoison. Often a supertrope of YouJustToldMe.

Note that '''spoilers''' will abound in the examples.----!!Examples

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[[folder:Anime & Manga]]* In ''Manga/DeathNote'' L tricks Light with one of the aforementioned variants very early on. Light usually reacts coolly as part of his acting skills later on. Of course, this being ''Death Note'' this happens something along the lines of every episode, and is probably one of the most common {{plan}}s used.** The Yellow Box gambit warrants particular attention, being a variant of #3 which bears striking similarities to [[spoiler: The Adventure of the Empty House]].* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' sees plenty use of this trope. A particularly good example is from the first Case Closed movie, in which Conan tells the suspect that he found the disguise he used while conducting his bombings. (He actually made it himself out of stuff he found in the room.) The bluff succeeds and the suspect says "But I left those in the study." Oops.* Parodied in ''Manga/Yuria100Shiki''. A boy who's recently watched a show called ''[[{{Expy}} Bolumco]]'' discovers a close-up photo of a vagina on his father's hard drive. He has no idea what it's a photo of, so he shows it to his friends, and his female friend (who thinks it looks vaguely familiar, like she's seen it from a different angle) shows it to her foster father. He immediately denies all knowledge of what it is, so the boys bluff him and pretend they've figured out its location--and of course, he immediately looks in the direction of the girl's crotch.* One of [[Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles Kindaichi's]] favorite tactics is to put the suspect in a position where they'll be killed by their own death trap unless they take action (and thus implicating themselves, since an innocent person wouldn't know about the trap).* The heros of ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'' write a manga "Detective Trap" around this trope.* During Part 3 of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'', Jotaro and co. are trying to suss out an enemy stand user aboard a ship full of seaman and a stowaway. With the captain of the ship within earshot, Jotaro makes up some fact about how cigarette smoke (he had lit one up moments earlier) makes a vein on a stand user's nose bulge out. Everyone in Jotaro's party checks their noses...including the captain (though he reveals that he had no idea who the stand user actually was, and was planning on using the same trick for every individual crew member.)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* In the graphic novel ''ComicBook/Camelot3000'', Myth/{{Merlin}} has been betrayed by one of the reincarnated Round Table knights. Myth/KingArthur orders the suspects to hold Excalibur and attest to their innocence, claiming his sword will magically strike down anyone who lies while holding it. The guilty party panics and confesses, after which Arthur admits that Excalibur has no such power.* A Marvel issue of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has Kirk implicated in the murder of a planet's ambassador with whom he inadvertently crossed as a cadet. On the planet's surface, Spock uses deductive reasoning--or as Dr. [=McCoy=] termed it, "bluffing"--to reveal the real murderer.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* The hero in the French movie ''Le Bossu'' uses this to unmask the murderer.* The climax of the film ''Film/AFewGoodMen'' has the defense lawyer provoking the base commander into a rage in the hope that he would admit to ordering the beating that killed the Marine. It's the sequence that the very famous line [[BeamMeUpScotty does not]] come from. The bluff hinged on the base commander lying about the time of a particular flight. The defense attorney brought in two airmen that he implied were going to testify as to the actual time of the flight. Turns out that the airmen had absolutely no recollection of anything.* In ''Film/{{Star Trek VI|The Undiscovered Country}}'', when the murderers of the Klingon Chancellor are themselves found dead on the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock have someone broadcast an order over the ship's P.A. system for a court reporter to report to sickbay to take statements from the two men. Naturally assuming that the men actually survived their assassination and are about to spill the proverbial beans, the assassin, [[spoiler:Lieutenant Valeris, Spock's protégée]], heads straight to sickbay to finish the job...and finds Kirk, Spock, and [=McCoy=] lying in wait instead.* In the Creator/AlPacino / Creator/RobinWilliams film ''Film/{{Insomnia}}'', the police find the murder victim's backpack in the woods, and Pacino orders them to replace it and then put out a reward for any information about it, so that the murderer will return to collect it before anyone else finds it. It worked, but he still got away at the time.** This comes from the Norwegian original, the same results.* In ''Theatre/{{Doubt}}'', [[spoiler: Sister Aloysius bluffs Father Flynn by claiming that she had spoken to a nun at his previous Parish that had confirmed his pattern of child abuse. But she didn't make that call, and she takes the Priest's resignation as a confession.]]* In ''Film/{{Klute}}'', Donald Sutherland has figured out who the killer is, but has no evidence. So he makes up a story, telling the bad guy that he's about to acquire an incriminating address book, in order to smoke the bad guy out.* In ''Film/{{Crossfire}}'', Montgomery kills Floyd, the only witness to his murder of Samuels. Detective Finlay, who has no hard evidence against Montgomery, devises a ruse. Leroy, another soldier, leads Montgomery to believe that Floyd is actually still alive, then shows Montgomery a paper with the address of the boarding house Floyd is at. Montgomery then shows up at Floyd's room, claiming to have been sent there by Leroy—except that Leroy gave him the wrong address. Montgomery's arrival at the right room proves that he was there before and catches him out as the murderer.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Folklore]]* Supposedly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Napier John Napier]] used this as a tactic to figure out which of his servants had been stealing from him. He covered a rooster in soot and put it into a darkened room, commanding everybody in town to enter the room and touch it, and declaring that the one whose touch caused the rooster to crow is the criminal. One by one, the townspeople enter the room and then leave. The rooster never made a sound. Napier then pointed out that one man had clean hands, showing that he never actually touched the rooster for fear of causing it to crow-- proving his guilt.** ''Series/{{QI}}'' discussed the subject in series C:--->'''Creator/StephenFry:''' I'm going to raise the tone, now. Why did the inventor of the decimal point encourage his servants to stroke his cock?* There are lots of old variations on this, such as a judge who hands out "magic sticks" to everyone in the village and tells them that the thief's stick will grow an inch in the night. The thief is the one who returns his stick with the end sawn off.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* ''Franchise/PerryMason''. He ''always'' does this, and he always does it in the courtroom, when the murderer is on the witness stand. (Which may be why that variation is known here as ThePerryMasonMethod). 32 movies (at least!), 245 television episodes, 11 years of radio shows, and 80 novels and short stories worth of Bluffing The Murderer.** Which gets confusing when said murderer is a fan of Mason and it still works. You'd think that, when he got called to the stand, he'd just confess and save everyone some time.** This was spoofed in Playboy with their cartoon series "Little Annie Fanny". Annie is accused of something and has to find a lawyer. As soon as she hires Mason someone jumps up screaming "I did it! I killed him!", leading Annie to say "I didn't even kill anyone."* In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Vimes confronts [[spoiler:Dragon King of Arms]] and hints that he's being surrounded by [[spoiler:holy-water-infused candles]], in a way that should only makes sense to [[spoiler:Dragon]] if he was behind the plot to kill Vetinari with [[spoiler: arsenic-infused candles]].** Another Discworld example; in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Carrot spreads a rumour that they have [[spoiler: Edward D'eath]] in custody so that the villain goes to the place where they found [[spoiler: Edward's]] corpse.** Yet another, in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', Vimes uses the ginger beer trick[[note]](the exact nature of which is never specified in the text, but is said by WordOfGod to be shaking a bottle of carbonated drink, opening it, and stuffing it up the victim's nose, an actual torture technique in some countries)[[/note]] on two of the [[SecretPolice Cable Street Particulars]] in order to get the third to talk. [[spoiler:It turns out to have been an elaborate bluff involving the popping noise made by a finger in the cheek, someone hissing through their teeth, and Fred Colon's "tendency" to give bloodcurdling screams at random intervals...]]* Not a murderer, per se, but in the Creator/IsaacAsimov short story "Galley Slave", Dr. Calvin bluffs a strongly anti-robot professor, who had ordered a type-editing robot to make horrendous errors. She badgers and rattles the professor, damaging their defense, but at the climax, the robot stands up and the professor screams "Damn you, you were instructed to keep your mouth shut about--" Dr. Calvin points out, later, that the professor had only to keep quiet since the robot was about to defend the professor, in accordance with the First Law.* In ''Literature/{{Memory}}'' by Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold, Miles bluffs [[spoiler:Haroche]] into trying to swap out an incriminating air filter.* This is a common tactic of Literature/EncyclopediaBrown.* In the LordPeterWimsey novel ''Strong Poison'', Lord Peter eventually gets the murderer to confess in part by pretending to feed him arsenic-laced food; the murderer had committed the crime by becoming immune to arsenic and sharing a poisoned meal with the victim.* In the Literature/BrotherCadfael novel ''A Morbid Taste for Bones'' by Creator/EllisPeters, Cadfael makes use of the superstition that a murdered body will bleed more if the murderer touches it by getting the daughter of the murdered man to ask the suspect to place a crucifix over his heart. [[spoiler:The man panics and confesses, but it turns out that he only stuck an arrow through the murdered man when he was already dead, and didn't murder him.]]* The Literature/SherlockHolmes stories have a number of examples.** Sherlock pulls one of these in ''The Valley of Fear''. Deducing that some vital evidence has been dumped in the moat, he announces that it must be drained - then catches the murderer [[spoiler: (actually the victim, who overpowered and switched identities with his would-be assassin)]] when they come to move the goods. Pure bluff, in that it was impossible to actually drain the moat.** He pulls a type 3 on Colonel Moran in "The Adventure of the Empty House". He knows Moran was Moriarty's [[TheDragon Dragon]], and he also knows that Moran was responsible for a high-profile murder case. He's in danger as long as Moran is free, so he uses a wax replica of his head to trick Moran into shooting him. The police (who were alerted by Holmes) burst into the titular house where the Colonel was hiding and arrest him after he reveals himself.* In one of Jill Paton Walsh's detective novels the police inspector states that they almost never get enough evidence to perfectly unambiguously convince the jury and win a trial, instead they get enough evidence to convince the murderer that they could, at which point they confess.* In ''Arrow's Fall'', the third of Creator/MercedesLackey's original Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar trilogy, Herald Talia and Herald-Princess Elspeth catch a traitorous nobleman this way.** Note that a telepathic probe of Talia would have ordinarily been enough to at least detain someone for questioning under the Truth Spell (the only thing that anyone lied about during the staged confrontation was Talia's relative health), but seizing a high ranking and [[EvilChancellor almost completely trusted royal advisor]] without solid evidence is a delicate matter.* Literature/NeroWolfe does this more often than he doesn't.* This is how Elijah Baley solves the case of roboticide in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn'', getting [[spoiler: Amadiro to blurt out that he had had contact with the robot]]. He does the same in a more cruel way in ''Literature/TheNakedSun''.* Porfiry of ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' tries this many times on Raskolnikov. One particular instance involves Porfiry directly asking Raskolnikov about a detail at the crime scene when Raskalnikov is talking about his presence at the scene before the murder.* [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]] bluffs ''himself'' into this position by attacking Will Graham in a very self-incriminating way-- little did Lecter know Graham had no real evidence on him, and knew he was the Chesapeake Ripper only because his own Lecter-level intuitive imagination led him to the conclusion. %%um, which book is this in?* Creator/JulesVerne's ''Keraban the Inflexible'' has the same trick as Napier uses (explained above in the Folklore session), except with a goat instead of a rooster.* Creator/AgathaChristie does this in several works: ** In ''Literature/MurderAtTheVicarage'', Literature/MissMarple suggests a trap to make the killer believe someone overheard a telephone conversation. ** Conway Jefferson in ''The Body in the Library'' and Madame Renaud in ''Literature/TheMurderOnTheLinks'' make it known that they are changing their wills the following day, [[spoiler:to [[TheBait induce the killer to attempt an assassination]] during the night, when the police will be waiting for them.]] ** Characters in ''Literature/TheMovingFinger'' and ''Literature/AMurderIsAnnounced'' pretend that they saw the murder committed and know the identity of the murderer. In each case, once again, this induces the murderer to attempt another murder, and be caught. ** ''Literature/CardsOnTheTable'' has Literature/HerculePoirot hire an actor to play the part of a window cleaner who claims to have witnessed the murder through the window. He didn't really, of course, but Poirot reconstructed how it occurred from his imagination. ** In ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', Poirot causes one of the killers to break down and confess by springing the truth on them. ** In ''Literature/TheABCMurders'', the killer confesses after Poirot mentions he left a fingerprint on his scapegoat's typewriter. Discussing the case later with Hastings, Poirot admits that there was no fingerprint: "I put that in to please you, ''mon ami.''"** In ''Literature/TowardsZero'', AmateurSleuth Angus [=MacWhirter=] claimed to have seen the killer swim across the creek and climb a rope into the victim's room at the time of the murder. He actually saw no such thing, but he stumbled across the murderer's jacket, found the wet rope in the house attic, connected the dots, and provided his (unproven) deduction as eyewitness account, forcing the killer to confess.* PlayedForLaughs in a very short story by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achille_Campanile Achille Campanile]]: a detective facing a line of suspects says in a deliberately casual way "Say, mister murderer...", then arrests the person who answered "Yes?"* In ''[[Literature/DetectiveJoeSandilands Ragtime In Simla]]'', Detective Sandilands brings in someone from the villain's past, whom they believed to be dead, to burst into a seance dressed as an accusing ghost.* ''Literature/{{TACK}}'': An occasional solution to the group's cases. Most notably used when Abby tricks one of her classmates into revealing that they wrote the poison pen letters to their teacher.* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': Nick does this in "The Theft of Santa's Beard", when he points at the murderer as he is leaving the police station and yells "He's the killer and I can prove it!" The killer panics and tries to flee, and is immediately grabbed by the cops. Nick doesn't actually have any hard eveidence, but knows tat the police will probably find it if they search the killer's office.* ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'' has Han using this tactic. While ferrying a group of people to find the top-secret prison called Star's End, Han discovers the leader of the mission dead and the data pad containing the prison's secret location destroyed. After he locks up the others while he tries to sort things out he discovers that the dead leader had scratched the location into the table he was found dead on. Han then tells everyone to calculate a hyperspace jump to the correct star system but he deliberately gives everyone the wrong planet. He then outs the killer as the one who corrected his calculations by using the right planet.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* This is basically Series/{{Columbo}}'s ''modus operandi''. More than half the episodes have him pulling this one, a few times even involving tricking the murderer into trying to kill ''him''.* Bud does ThePerryMasonMethod in an episode of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' by infuriating the suspect in the murder of a bumbling sailor by putting on a full-on act of ObfuscatingStupidity in the courtroom.* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' does this a lot. One good example was the Season 2 finale, where Goren manages to pin a murder meant to discredit him on Nicole Wallace through a complicated routine involving anthrax samples and her supposed immunity.** Another variant came when they realized that their initial suspect was being framed by her husband. Since both were lawyers, they couldn't inform the ADA without both the wife and the culprit finding out. This results in the detectives lying to the wife, the real suspect, ''and'' the Assistant District Attorney in charge of the case in order to obtain a confession. They've done that last bit twice, and on at least one occasion he wasn't too happy about it.*** In fact, the second time he said that if they did it to him again, he would make sure they didn't have a badge by the end of the day. Goren and Eames were actually quite surprised.** In yet another Criminal Intent episode, a hitman/family man who kept the bodies in a giant freezer in the garage (under the ice cream!) was undone after Goren convinced the medical examiner to report that one of the people who was murdered had lost a cap from his tooth. The hitman tore his garage apart all night trying to find it, and in the morning, when the cops came around, he blurted out how he hadn't made a mistake, there was no cap, and they arrested him.** The original ''Series/LawAndOrder'' pulled a similar gambit on a woman they suspected of hiring a hitman to kill her husband. They discovered a crucial piece of evidence (a jailhouse informant) after they had rested their case. In the US criminal justice system the prosecution is not allowed to introduce new evidence on rebuttal unless it undermines something in the defense, and the defendant cannot be forced to testify. So they made up a cock-and-bull story, claiming that the wife killed the hitman out of revenge (which they knew to be false) and which the defendant could have only refuted by testifying. The attorney puts his client on the stand to defend against the false charge, giving [=McCoy=] the opening to introduce his informant to prove the real one.** On an early episode of Law & Order, ADA Ben Stone gets a man to confess to his crimes by giving him immunity in "New York County". He repeats that several times because he knows the man does not understand that "New York County" is just the island of Manhattan. After he confesses he is arrested for crimes committed in the other four boroughs. * In ''Series/FullHouse'', Jesse's cousin from Greece came to visit. He was a model citizen in front of Jesse, but he was a deviant, from trying to seduce Jesse's girlfriend, to rigging a charity drive that would actually fund his trip to Disney Land, among other things. Becky, Jesse's girlfriend, ends up trying this to get Jesse to believe his cousin is a dirtbag. It fails, but it's the thought that counts.* The "White Bird" episode of ''Series/KnightRider'' has the hero confront the villain with vague threats. If the villain would just sit tight, keep his cool and not panic, he would have gotten away; however, he panics and phones his henchman, setting his own downfall into motion.** Probably more episodes of ''Series/KnightRider'' than just this have employed the trope.* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' has done this in several episodes:** "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room" and "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" use variant 1.** Also inverted in the episode ''Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather'', where Monk actually did think the FBI Van parked nearby recorded the killer's confession, but it turns out they hadn't because Monk inadvertently wrecked the bug (he had the tie washed in a washing machine due to a stain earlier in the episode), although the killer did end up begging to be arrested anyways, namely because he didn't want the mafia to commit revenge against him.** "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" has Monk bluffing [[spoiler:Lester Highsmith]], who is about to shoot an armored guard, into letting his guard down through use of a Walter P38-water pistol. * If a given ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' episode ''doesn't'' end with this, it'll end with EngineeredPublicConfession. Most often, it's both: Jessica tricks the murderer into returning to the scene, confronts him/her alone, and ''then'' the police turn out to be hiding in the wardrobe after s/he confesses.** Jessica's most favored method was showing a piece of paper she said contained the evidence to prove the killer's guilt. This was openly lampshaded when, after the killer confessed, the chief of police checked the paper out and just chuckled.-->'''Chief''': You get more mileage out of a blank piece of paper than anyone I know. * Employed numerous times in ''{{Series/CSI}}''. In one example, the investigators determine that the victim's company-issued travel bag is missing and was probably taken by the murderer, but are unable to obtain a search warrant... so they obtain an identical bag from the company, hide a tape recorder in it, and bring it into their suspect's interview. The suspect immediately gives himself away by protesting that they must have searched his car without a warrant.* ''Series/BabylonFive'': ** Although not quite a murderer, the [[spoiler: telepath gets the location of a DamselInDistress from someone by making it float to the top of his mind: "It is vitally important that you don't think about anything else [...] or where [The victim] is now"]].** Happens again later when the heroes are busting one of their own out of prison. They bluff their way in to talk to the guards and casually talk about cells and security codes. They then knock the guards out while their resident telepath plugs in the code to open the cell, saying "He thought of the number as soon as you mentioned it".* Dutch tries this all the time on ''Series/TheShield'', with varying degrees of success. Claudette is also pretty good at it, but her moment also comes back to bite her in the ass. She gets a confession out of a serial killer by fooling him into thinking that his sister is dead, and that they will convict him for that crime. He returns the next season, representing himself, and manages to raise enough doubt about Claudette's credibility to get the DA to drop the death penalty. (He was going to spin the Bluff as a hallucination caused by her Lupus medication).* ''Series/SilentWitness''. While investigating a murder in Zambia, Nikki Alexander convinces a group of villagers that she is using witchcraft to "speak to the bones" of a murdered woman. First she describes the victim (information obtained from the post-mortem) then she gets the villagers to lay their machettes in front of them. When flies are attracted to the invisible blood droplets on the machette used by the killer, she picks it up and declares that the spirits have told her the owner is the killer. He promptly flees in panic and is grabbed by the police.* In ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Hawkeye unveils a thief by tricking him with this sort of ploy. He tells a group of people that the last object stolen had been treated with a substance that would turn the thief's fingers blue. When one of the people tried to hide his hands, Hawkeye knew he was the thief.** [[spoiler: But they let him get away with it since he was a poor Korean kid who said they "were all so rich".]]* ''Series/TheCloser'' had a variation on this. They left two criminals handcuffed in a police car outside their house while the team searched it. By listening in on their conversation the team not only got the confession they were looking for, they also found all sorts of incriminating evidence.** In another episode, they tell the victim's family (which they already know includes the killer) that they have a witness who saw the gun they believe to be the murder weapon being thrown from a car somewhere along the freeway, but that he wasn't sure exactly where since he wasn't local. They also tell them that they'll have patrol officers find the gun, but that it will take about two weeks since it's a pretty long stretch of road to search. In reality, they've already found the murder weapon, and thus just have to stake out the place along the freeway where it was found and wait for the killer to show up and try to remove it before the police can find it.** In yet another episode, a dead body is found in a cooler that's been sealed with duct tape. By the end of the episode, they have four suspects but no way to prove who is the actual killer. To find out, they get four coolers, put a GPS tracker and a camera inside each of them and seal them up with duct tape, making sure that they look exactly like the one the body was found in. Then they mail one to each of the suspects. The idea is that the three suspects who are innocent will have no idea why someone has sent them a strange box, and will open it to find out what's inside. The fourth suspect, who is guilty, will think that he already knows what's inside and will try to get rid of it without opening it. It works.* ''Series/TheMentalist'' features this a few times.** Sometimes rather cruelly such as [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt pretending]] to dozens of people that they have been infected with a deadly biological weapon (which killed the victim of the episode) and that the laboratory will be bombed by the air force to prevent it spreading. The killer was known to have recently taken the drug which would protect them from infection and is the only one who tries to escape.* In one episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', they suspect that a guy helped his friend with the murder [[spoiler: and also tried to kill his friend, who was currently in a coma]], but don't have enough proof. Instead, Bones bluffs that his friend ratted out on him and when he demands for her to [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay say something his friend would say]], she calmly tells him that his friend made a comment that he had difficulty putting on the sleeve on the corpse, proven by the corpse's broken arm. At that point, the guy promptly told her everything in order to get back at his friend.* Done unintentionally in ''Series/ColdCase''. The team has a witness to a crime scene where his mother was killed. They call in a woman whom the witness recognized. As soon as they mention there's a witness saying she helped with the murder, she quickly denies it, claiming it was impossible for anyone to see that night.* Not surprisingly, done several times in ''Series/{{Castle}}''. Some notable instances:** Beckett/Castle and Esposito/Ryan are investigating different murders, which they determine are related in a [[StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder Strangers on a Train]] scenario. While interrogating the suspects separately, Beckett/Castle rush into Esposito/Ryan's interrogation room to announce that their suspect confessed first, prompting the second suspect to immediately confess everything and blame the first guy (who hadn't confessed to anything.)** Castle gets his own in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome: a stuck-up rich kid has killed his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, framed his friends for the murder, and is convinced that Beckett has no proof (he's almost correct -- it's slim). Castle launches into an extended, sinister-sounding "he had it coming" routine on behalf of the killer, who responds with "Exactly."* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': The IMF use this technique frequently, particularly in [[TheSyndicate Syndicate]]-related episodes of the later seasons. Sometimes the target is led to believe there is incriminating evidence, such as a recording or film, which he obtains (aided by the team of course) and, upon realizing that it's patently inaccurate, actually [[EngineeredPublicConfession incriminates himself]] by pointing out the inaccuracies that only the perpetrator would know about.* The "place all the suspects together near the murderer's hidden time bomb, forcing the murderer (as the only one who knows about the bomb) to reveal himself in order to save his own life" variant was used twice on the 1954 Franchise/SherlockHolmes TV series -- once with actual explosives and once with arsenic candles.* ''Series/NashBridges'' has done this a few times, usually pretending that a now deceased suspect is still alive.-->'''Accomplice:''' Does he have a lawyer?-->'''Joe:''' [[FalseReassurance He hasn't asked for one.]]* Series/{{NCIS}} uses this quite frequently. Team Gibbs probably bluffs more suspects than they legitimately manage to nail. They usually lie about forensics that aren't in yet or aren't conclusive. * Several episodes of ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' have Mark Sloan expose the killer in this fashion. To cite a few examples:** A bombmaker is tricked into thinking that her own car is rigged with a bomb, forcing her to talk Mark through the procedure for disarming the device.** When a stage magician drowns while performing a Houdini-style escapology routine, Mark announces his plan to re-create the trick, with the exact same props and a woman the killer is in love with standing in for the victim. The killer panics and tries to halt the trick early.** The victim is killed because the killer tampers with his medication, and the killer learns that Mark is looking for a discarded pill at the scene of the crime as evidence. She's caught red-handed at the crime scene, trying to find and dispose of the pill.* Spoofed in a sketch of ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'', which begins with the detective finishing up what's implied to be a string of deductions incriminating one woman ("... and the two shades of lipstick were identical!"). Once the accused breaks out in "the Evil Voice," he admits that he hoped she do "the Evil Voice" as he didn't actually have any evidence, whereupon she promptly tries to take it back. The situation ultimately culminates in the murderer ending up [[SelfDisposingVillain shooting herself]], whereupon the detective remarks, "It is better this way. Some courts, they do not accept the Evil Voice as evidence." * ''Series/TheWire'':** Played straight many, many times, as the cops will use every possible means of tricking, lying to, or fooling suspects into talking. ** Bunk and [=McNulty=] try to break D'Angelo Barksdale by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6sP6ZiNjbU claiming that a witness recently killed on Avon's orders left behind multiple children]] who'll now be orphans (using a photo of Bunk's kids).** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrO_rAaiq0 In the opening to season 5]], two bluffs are used on a perp named [=DeShawn=]. First, Bunk makes claims that they took [=DeShawn=]'s accomplice to McDonalds as a reward for cooperating (when he in fact refused to talk), and then has Detective Crutchfield escort said accomplice past the interrogation room with a bag of McDonalds food in hand, which scares [=DeShawn=] accordingly. Then Bunk and Jay Landsman trick him into thinking a photocopier is a lie detector. In reality the copier has several pages preloaded, some of which say true, and one that says false. The cops ask harmless questions until they run out of "trues", then ask about the crime, and when the kid tries to lie about it, "false" comes out.** Subverted in one case, where Bodie had to dispose of a whole group of guns from a shootout [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime because a stray bullet]] killed [[InnocentBystander a young boy nearby]]. Unfortunately when he tries to throw them off a bridge into the water below, the bag instead lands on a passing barge. When the cops bring him in, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RstJ8jzlCCo Cole and Norris show him the bag]], lay out all the guns, and try to bluff that they found his fingerprints on one of the guns. Bodie cleaned all of the guns very meticulously, and thus knows there weren't any fingerprints left on them, so he challenges Cole to point to which one of the guns supposedly had his prints on it. When Cole picks the wrong one, Bodie just smiles, no doubt enjoying the irony since Cole had earlier accused Bodie of [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance being too stupid to even realize that he was stupid]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]* In ''{{Hamlet}}'', this is the entire point of ''The Murder of Gonzago'' (the play within the play).* Subverted in [[Creator/AgathaChristie Dame Christie's]] ''Theatre/TheMousetrap''. All the witnesses/suspects are asked to to re-enact the murder, but to do so playing the part of one of the other witnesses. It seems an exceedingly clever ploy (or a bold bluff) to effectively catch the murderer. [[SpoilAtYourOwnRisk And that is all we're saying about it.]]* In ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'', the hero Mortimer tries to bluff his AxCrazy brother Jonathan into leaving by threatening to introduce the cops to his latest murder victim. Subverted when Jonathan then threatens to tell the cops about the murders his [[BeneathSuspicion kindly old aunts]] have committed, and then [[DoubleSubversion doubly subverted]] when Mortimer arranges to have his aunts committed to a mental institution and Jonathan [[spoiler:gets arrested anyway]].* The entire plot of ''Rehearsal For Murder'' is one of these... sort of. [[spoiler:The twist is that the "cop" in the supposed EngineeredPublicConfession is the real killer whose knowledge of the contents of desk drawers after a staged killing prove that he was at the crime scene. It turns out to also be an actual EngineeredPublicConfession of a REAL cop hidden elsewhere in the theater. All the supposed suspects were in on it (the bluff I mean).]]* The Theatre/MrsHawking play series: At the conclusion of the third installment ''[[http://www.mrshawking.com/?page_id=1913 Base Instruments]]'', [[spoiler:they catch the murderer Yulia Sherba by tricking her into think Justin Hawking wants to leave the country with her, thus luring her to meet them with the immigration papers that prove she killed Raisa Sergeyeva in hand.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Videogames]]* In ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':** In case 3-1 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Mia Fey (the attorney the player controls in that case) proposes the theory that the real killer [[spoiler:put poison into Phoenix's cold medicine in order to kill him. Said "real killer" dismisses these claims. Mia then dares her to take some of the cold medicine, stating that she should have nothing to worry about if the theory is not true.]] The killer then breaks down and refuses, therefore proving Mia's theory.** In case 3-3 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Furio Tigre, the [[spoiler: murderer of the crime]], manages to secure his innocence and nearly got away until Phoenix Wright pull this off. [[spoiler:What Phoenix Wright does is present a fake evidence that this is the bottle that contains the poison that has his fingerprints on it. This gamble pays off when Furio laughs and mention it was the ''brown'' bottle; not realizing that he says [[INeverSaidItWasPoison something only the killer would say]] (since Furio was disguised as Phoenix Wright).]]** Something like this happens in the first case of ''Apollo Justice'', where [[spoiler: Phoenix gets to the real killer, Kristoph Gavin, by showing him a piece of doctored evidence. Kristoph accidentally implicates himself by shouting out that it's a fake... which means he ''knows'' where the real evidence is, in this case because he took it.]]* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': [[spoiler: Junpei learns that Guy X's killer has prosopagnosia, and needs to prove that Ace has prosopagnosia. So, he calls them all up to the hospital area where he claims to be Santa dressed in Junpei's clothing. Ace ends up confused, and falls for it.]]* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games have an in-game short story, [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:A_Game_at_Dinner ''A Game at Dinner'']], which uses a variant of this: Helseth implies to his assembled dinner guests that he put poison on the cutlery of someone spying against him, then invites any spies present to take a dose of the antidote, kept in a tureen at the centre of the table. One of the spies loses his nerve and drinks, only for Helseth to reveal that no-one's cutlery was poisoned. [[spoiler:The poison was, in fact, the 'antidote' the spy was just bluffed into drinking.]]* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' has this trope appear frequently during trial scenes. Since all of the characters are there, getting the murderer to admit evidence is often necessary to solve the cases.* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', Sigma uses this technique against [[spoiler: Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the leader of the terrorist group he suspects Dio is a member of. While trying to deny it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out that he never mentioned Brother's age.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}} does this to humorous effect in thwarting one of King Chicken's plots. After Cornfed gets him exonerated of all the charges, Duckman then calls King Chicken to the stand and proceeds to "interrogate" him by rambling senselessly until a fed-up King Chicken finally confesses just to shut him up.* Done accidentally on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when the local Mensa group goes to complain to the mayor about a gazebo they'd reserved being used by someone else. However, they phrase their complaints in very vague, accusing ways, insisting that the document they're carrying (gazebo reservation bylaws) will "blow things wide open". Mayor Quimby, thinking they're referring to [[CorruptPolitician one of his countless other, more serious crimes]], freaks out and immediately flees the city.[[/folder]]